First Quarter Moon
First Quarter MoonImage credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio.(large image)

First Quarter in Cancer

First Quarter on . Illuminated surface of the Moon is 53% and growing larger. Lunar cycle is 8 days young.

* The exact date and time of this First Quarter phase is on 12 April 2057 at 04:59 UTC.

Moonrise and moonset

Moon rises at noon and sets at midnight. It is visible high in the southern sky in early evening.

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon in ♋ Cancer

Moon is leaving the last ∠4° of ♋ Cancer tropical zodiac sector and will enter ♌ Leo later.

Pink Moon after 6 days

Next Full Moon is the Pink Moon of April 2057 after 6 days on 19 April 2057 at 10:49.

Neap tide

There is low ocean tide on this date. Sun and Moon gravitational forces are not aligned, but meet at big angle, so their combined tidal force is weak.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1794"

Lunar disc appears visually 6.4% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1794" and ∠1913".

Lunation 708 / 1661

The Moon is 8 days young and navigating through the first part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 708 of Meeus index or 1661 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.63 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 15 hours and 1 minute and it is 38 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to increase with the lunar orbit true anomaly getting closer to the value it has at the point of New Moon at apogee (∠180°).

Lunation length longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 2 hours and 17 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 4 hours and 46 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠117°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠117° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠148.6°.

Moon after apogee

3 days since point of apogee on 9 April 2057 at 05:48 in ♊ Gemini the lunar orbit is getting narrow while the Moon is moving towards the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 8 days until the Moon reaches the point of next perigee on 21 April 2057 at 04:54 in ♏ Scorpio.

Distance to Moon 399 566 km

The Moon is 399 566 km (248 279 mi) away from Earth and getting closer over the next 8 days until the point perigee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 361 376 km (224 549 mi).

Moon after ascending node

1 day after ascending node on 10 April 2057 at 19:48 in ♋ Cancer the Moon is positioned north of the ecliptic over the following 11 days until the lunar crosses the ecliptic again from North to South in descending node on 23 April 2057 at 20:52 in ♐ Sagittarius.

Moon after northern standstill

1 day since the last northern standstill on 11 April 2057 at 06:46 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠23.399° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next 11 days to face maximum declination of ∠-23.505° at the point of next southern standstill on 24 April 2057 at 07:56 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

1 day since the beginning of this draconic month in ♋ Cancer the Moon is navigating from the beginning to the first part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 6 days

In 6 days on 19 April 2057 at 10:49 in ♎ Libra the Moon is going to be in a Full Moon geocentric opposition with the Sun and thus forming the next Sun-Earth-Moon syzygy alignment.

Lunar calendar

Sources and credits

Parts of this Lunar Calendar are based on Planetary Ephemeris Data Courtesy of Fred Espenak, www.Astropixels.com

Moon phase image credit to NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio, svs.gsfc.nasa.gov